EUROPE AND HER DESPOTS. 309 



vention, in lfU3, that the overthrow of Napoleon is mainly to be attri- 

 buted. Profiting by her geographical position, which enabled her to act 

 on the flanks and on the rear of the French armies, she threw 300,000 

 men into the scale, and decided the contest. On the reconstruction of 

 the federative policy of Europe on a new basis, this power, in exchange 

 for her former tesselated territory, acquired a compact arrondissement 

 of kingdoms and provinces, with a population of thirty millions. This 

 territorial aggrandisement she owes to Metternich. As a diplomatist, 

 this minister possesses undoubtedly talents of the highest order. A 

 fascinating polish of exterior an irresistible suavity of manner a mel- 

 lifluous intonation of voice a happy tact of diving into the most hidden 

 recesses of the human heart a fertility of invention a ready choice of 

 expedients an unblushing disregard for truth a Jesuitical craft a 

 command of countenance a toute epreuve a cold-blooded heartlessness, 

 that enables him to pursue, with Machiavelian skill and unwearied perti- 

 nacity, the object he has in view, totally heedless of the means by which 

 he accomplishes it such is Metternich : a man, whose name is in uni- 

 versal execration from one end of the continent to the other. 



But it is in vain that the Emperor Francis and his brother despots, 

 oppose the march of European regeneration ; it is, to use the prophetic 

 words of Napoleon te La roche de Syziphe qu'ils tiennent au dessus de 

 leurs tetes." An active principle of amelioration and reform is at work 

 in every country j a principle that advances spirally, and gains, even 

 while it appears to recede. Still we are not insensible to the power of 

 the formidable coalition that is already deploying their columns of attack. 

 They have carried freedom's first bulwark, Poland; they are now 

 advancing against her second line in Germany. The roll of the distant 

 thunder that pealed along the banks of the Vistula, is approaching the 

 valley of the Rhine. Does the government of France slumber ? Why 

 sits she inactive, when Europe is resounding with the din of arms from 

 one end to the other ? Is she paralysed by the magnitude of the torrent 

 that is rolling westward ? Is she blind to the experience of the past ? 

 Has she forgotten, that from 1793 to 1813, the preparations of every 

 hostile attack against her were made under the shadow of diplomatic 

 negotiations ? Can she not see that the acts of the Diet, the protocols of 

 the Conferences, the notes of diplomacy, have but one object, to root up 

 the revolutionary principles of July ? Let her therefore arm for the 

 approaching struggle, for sooner or later, war, a war of principles, is 

 inevitable and let her, to the arrogant threats of the coalesced despots, 

 reply, in the eloquent language of the patriot Isnard to the German 

 Diet at Ratisbon " Disons a 1'Europe que le peuple Fran^ais s'il tire 

 Tepee, en jettera le fourreau ; qu'il n'ira le chercher que couronne des 

 lauriers de la victoire que si des cabinets engagent les rois dans une 

 guerre centre les peuples. Nous engagerons les peuples dans une guerre 

 contre les rois." These daring words have been already once verified, 

 and may be so again. 



